State to regulate hobby gold mining

TELLICO PLAINS, Tenn. — Tennessee conservation officials are drafting regulations on where and how people can look for gold in the southeast corner of the state.

TELLICO PLAINS, Tenn. — Tennessee conservation officials are drafting regulations on where and how people can look for gold in the southeast corner of the state.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the move comes as the popularity of gold prospecting increases in an area concentrated mostly on Coker Creek and the Tellico River.

Jonathon Burr, program manager with the mining section of TDEC’s division of water resources, said the regulations are still being worked on but in general they would put some limits on looking for gold.

“We knew there was a tradition of panning and dredging around Coker Creek and Tellico,” Jonathon Burr said. “We’ve seen it spread to other streams, and we want to set reasonable limits as it continues to grow.”

He said the rules would give some relief to popular streams with habitat damage and may prohibit searching for gold in streams that hold threatened or endangered aquatic species. In addition, dredging for gold — using a machine to pump streambed material to a sluice box on the surface — might be limited to larger waterways.

“We don’t have anything against the concept of recreational dredging if it’s done in a certain way,” said Burr. “These gold dredgers are not bad guys. A lot of them want regulations to keep the few bad apples from making them look bad.”

TDEC environmental specialist Bruce Ragon said prohibitions for traditional panning will be few.

“It’s certainly not our intent at the end of this process to restrict simple panning much at all,” Ragon said. “We’re talking real common sense stuff. The permit language will need to set boundaries for the recreator to know when they’re OK and when they’re not.”

The Conservation Department says the guidelines are being drafted with help from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and representatives from the Coker Creek Chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America.

Officials said a proposed permit could be submitted to the public as early as this fall, with official permits issued as soon as 2015.